In terminal apparatus with employment of personal computers and the like, while these terminal apparatus are connected via mainly wired communication lines to networks such as the Internet, the terminal apparatus can acquire target information by viewing Web sites which may provide information on the networks, and/or by downloading data from servers which constitute Web sites. In such a case that information is acquired in such terminal apparatus, a so-called “automatic cyclically accessing method” has been proposed (refer to, for example, patent publication 1, patent publication 2, and patent publication 3). That is, in this automatic cyclically accessing method, while a site to be accessed has been previously designated, a terminal apparatus automatically accesses the designated site in a predetermined time period, or at a predetermined time instant so as to acquire the target information. This method has a merit in the case that terminal apparatus accesses the same site in a periodic manner so as to update information, and wants to continuously grasp the latest information.
On the other hand, very recently, Internet functions are mounted even on portable terminal apparatus for performing wireless communications such as portable telephone apparatus, so that various sorts of information can be acquired. For instance, in such a case that news information is acquired by a portable telephone apparatus, the below-mentioned sequence is carried out. That is, first of all, a connection of the Internet is established, and thereafter, a desirable news site is selected by repeating a selection operation several times in accordance with a menu display, or by directly entering URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) of sites in the portable telephone apparatus. In the conventional portable terminal apparatus, cumbersome operations such as the above-explained selection operation are required every time the conventional portable terminal apparatus access to a target site in order to acquire necessary information from Web sites, or the like on the Internet.
(patent publication 1)
JP-A-11-213015 (pages 6 to 10, FIG. 1 to FIG. 4)
(patent publication 2)
JP-A-2001-346174 (pages 3 to 9, FIG. 7)
(patent publication 3)
JP-A-2001-14210 (pages 2 to 4, FIG. 1)
As previously explained, in the case that the conventional portable terminal apparatus accesses the Web sites and the like on the Internet so as to acquire the information, such a sequence is required in which the conventional portable terminal apparatus accesses the target site so as to select the pages which are wanted to be viewed every time the information is acquired. As a result, as to a news site and the like which are viewed everyday, every time the conventional portable terminal apparatus views the news site and the like, a similar process operation must be repeatedly carried out. Thus, the conventional portable terminal apparatus owns such a problem that the process operation becomes cumbersome. Also, since the dimension of the operation unit of the conventional portable terminal apparatus is small, there is another problem. That is, in such a case that accessing operations are frequently carried out, a user is forcibly required to perform the cumbersome operations.
Also, in the conventional portable terminal apparatus, information such as news cannot be automatically distributed, or cannot be automatically acquired. Furthermore, since the conventional portable terminal apparatus owns a further problem as to storage capacities thereof, the acquired information may be once viewed, but after a plurality of the acquired information have been stored, the stored information cannot be viewed within one time. Also, since the users carry the portable terminal apparatus during walks, the following problem may occur. That is, for example, in the case that the users are moved to places where electromagnetic waves cannot be reached (namely, outside service area where electromagnetic waves can be reached), the portable terminal apparatus cannot access the target sites.
Under such a circumstance, although the automatic cyclically accessing function is desired to be mounted on portable terminal apparatus, the portable terminal apparatus own specific reasons, for example, use environments of the portable terminal apparatus may be changed in connection with transport of the portable terminal apparatus, and there are many limitations in hardware specifications thereof. As a consequence, as explained in the background art, if the conventional portable terminal apparatus merely and automatically cyclic-access a preselected site at a preset time instant, then the conventional portable terminal apparatus cannot be satisfactorily operated in view of a practical use.
The present invention has been made to solve these problems, and therefore, has an object to provide such a portable terminal apparatus. That is, since a process sequence related to an access to a site on a network is previously and arbitrarily set by a user, the portable terminal apparatus can automatically perform sequential process operations capable of recovering/processing system operations in the case that a failure specific to the portable terminal apparatus happens to occur, for instance, when the portable terminal apparatus is located outside a service area where electromagnetic waves can be reached, and when a storage capacity thereof becomes short. Even in the portable terminal apparatus for performing wireless communications, information can be acquired at a predetermined time instant by way of an automatic cyclically accessing operation, and desirable information can be readily obtained when it is required.